When the Roper Elementary Parent Teacher Organization first heard summer school opportunities would no longer be offered at every school in the district, it immediately jumped into action.
Relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic had allowed Lincoln Public Schools to extend the district’s summer school offerings to include all 40 elementary schools for a few years, but that funding has since run dry. Now, LPS plans to revert to its prior practice of only offering summer school at its 18 Title 1 elementary schools — which doesn’t include Roper.
Adam Rhoads and the PTO knew something had to be done to continue providing the school’s students with educational activities throughout the summer and, more importantly, two hot meals a day and a safe place to go.
“We just decided that this was something we wanted to see if we could make happen,†Rhoads, a seven-year PTO board member, said. “We have this big population of kids that need access to food, or access to the school, or all kinds of different things that we could offer them.â€
Rhoads, alongside the rest of the PTO, began looking at options, which is when they connected with We Can Do This, a Lincoln organization aimed at ending childhood hunger in the community.
Through the nonprofit, Roper PTO was able to secure $10,000 in donations — $5,000 of which came from a private source, while the other half came from a donation from Allo Communications — to support a summer program this year and hire several supervisors to help run it.
“No parent wants their child to be hungry, and sometimes you just can't make ends meet,†said Susie Brown, president of the organization. “Having this program is doing more for this community than some people would understand.â€
We Can Do This will provide students with both breakfast and lunch from the beginning of June until the last week of summer vacation in August through their food bank program, and PTO volunteers will have a wide variety of educational activities available for the students.
The PTO also plans to collaborate with the school and local organizations, like Nebraska Extension, to offer students a wide range of experiences throughout the summer, from arts and crafts to games, story times and outdoor activities.
“We wanted to not only do the food, but also try to provide some activities so we have a place that kids can go to where they're safe,†Rhoads said. “We have a lot of parents who work during the summer, obviously, and the kids are home alone. We can get them out of the house for a while and come somewhere where it's safe and productive.â€
Additionally, Rhoads said they plan to partner with Bimbo Bakeries to provide students with baked goods like bread to ensure they have some quality food at home over the weekends.
All kids, both those who attend Roper and those who don’t, are welcome to join in on the fun at the program, Rhoads said.
The program is especially important at Roper because there aren’t any community centers, libraries, pools or other resources available in the neighborhood for kids who are hungry or in need of a place to go during the day, Brown said.
“There's no other food source out in this area for kids,†she said. “So knowing that if something didn't happen at Roper, the kids in this area would go without food through the summer is just not something that we could let happen.â€
While there are still some details that need to be nailed down, the PTO and We Can Do This were able to pull the whole thing together in less than a month, which was a pretty exciting feat and a testament to the Lincoln community’s dedication to its children, Brown said.
“It's absolutely amazing that this could happen, and happen in such a short time,†she said. “It brings tears to my eyes.â€
Through COVID funding, LPS had been able to provide a variety of additional resources to students during the pandemic to help make up for lost instructional time — like expanded summer school offerings— but because that federal funding is no longer supported, the district is forced to reevaluate those offerings, according to Superintendent Paul Gausman.
LPS has been working to decide which programs funded through the pandemic can be continued into the future with general education funding, but those decisions will likely be made by the Lincoln Board of Education during the budget process later this summer.
“Those are tough decisions to make,†he said.
While Gausman said he regrets that the district had to make this difficult decision, seeing the Roper community come together to provide for the students and meet their needs has been admirable.
“It's rewarding. It's refreshing. It's exactly what I love about the Lincoln community,†he said. “We'll continue to do everything we can with the resources we do have, but continue to celebrate and admire that our community steps forward to do everything they can, in addition to what we can provide, to make us better and stronger.â€